Sunday, February 5, 2006

Social Butterflies?

John and I were social butterflies this weekend...we had dinner with Ian and Caroline on Friday night, went to John Lewis to do our wedding registry on Saturday afternoon, went to Freda and Travis' for dinner on Saturday night, and then got home at about 5 this evening.

Friday night was lots of fun...we all met up after work, dropped our stuff at Ian and Caroline's, and then walked into Bury. Had a few drinks at "3" (a bar), and then went across the street to I & C's favorite Indian restaurant (Rose of Bengal). Apparently they go there quite a bit...we were greeted warmly by the staff, who knew exactly what we would all be eating. The food was fantastic...definitely the best curry I've had in ages. I had a small mishap when I accidentally ate three hot chiles at once...I'd never REALLY overdone it on spicyness before and I have no desire to do it again. I recovered, with much encouragement and sympathy from everyone, after about 10 minutes, but I think there may be some residual emotional scars. I definitely want to go back, but I may take it easy on the chiles.

We all had a really great time, though. It was the first time since I've been here where I've really felt like I was just hanging out and laughing with my peers. I love my colleagues, I love John's family, but it was so much fun to just hang out with friends.

Came back home on Saturday morning, had eggs on toast with cups of tea (a good cure for overindulgence if comfort diner isn't available...), and headed out to John Lewis in Norwich to do some wedding registering. One little beepy PDA scanner and 3 hours later, we staggered back to the car. The only (v. small) battle was over the wine glasses (John loves the pattern...I'm not wild about it but it's growing on me). It was funny...the store employees would spot the scanner and make a beeline for us. They were also somewhat timid in their introductions- it seemed like they were expecting us to fight epic battles over every sugar bowl and wisk. There were some very tortured-looking fiances trailing after their future wives, though.

Made a really yummy variation on baked apples for dessert this evening...we had some extra apples that I wanted to use up so I modified a recipe that I found on Food Network. I'll post it tomorrow. :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kate, loved the John Lewis story. I don't know how much you remember about our many visits to John Lewis in Peterborough (the white table and chairs on the front porch originally came from there!). What I remember was the very high standard of customer service and attention given by the staff in the store. This was in dramatic contrast to the level of service we found in other stores. It was so marked that I asked around about it, and found that John Lewis employees have a profit sharing scheme and are really "stockholders" in the business and in the store operation. Therefore, they pay high attention to their customers, and it shows. Nothing like giving someone a piece of the action to motivate them! Watch out for the chiles!